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SpinMedia, a network of pop-culture sites that hypes itself as one of the top 50 networks in the country, has hit the wall.

Faced with dwindling venture money and a mountain of debt, the company has undergone an assignment for the benefit of creditors and flipped the old company to a new one with some new backers.

The deal means that $125 million in equity that venture firms put in over the years is wiped out. Silicon Valley Bank, the banker that had loaned $12.5 million to the old company, has cut its losses and settled its obligation.

The old company known as SpinMedia LLC will now be known as SpinMedia Group. CEO Dale Strang would not reveal losses, liabilities or revenue, but insisted, “the biggest chunk of liability with the old company has been resolved.” Sources said that involved a settlement with Silicon Valley Bank.

The company has hired Tom Morrissy, a former publisher of Entertainment Weekly and OK! to be executive vice president and chief revenue officer.

The reorganization is similar to a bankruptcy, but it is under the supervision of the state of California, which does not require the kind of public filing that federal bankruptcy court does.

“It’s a good outcome to an exhaustive process,” said Dale Strang, a former top executive at Vibe Media who became CEO in September, marking the third person to hold the job in less than a year. “It’s a new company with new money and some new people.”

He is predicting that the company will turn a profit in 2014.

All the equity holders in the old firm lost their investments. A few of the investors are putting some money into the newly formed company. MC Partners, which was an original investor, is now the main one behind the new company and is backing it with $10 million in new money; it is being joined by Focus Ventures and Anthem Ventures, Strang said. One new backer is Washington, DC-based TDF Venture Partners.

Red Point Ventures, which was a big backer in the old lineup, has sat this one out and has apparently written off its investment.

The websites that SpinMedia has purchased over the years to boost its traffic — ranging from small, recently acquired Pink Is the New Blog to the entire Vibe Media operation that it purchased last year from a joint venture controlled by Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos. and NBA great Magic Johnson — are also likely to have been burned, with their equity reduced to zero under the reorganizations.

Sources said that some of the previously acquired sites’ owners, including Pink Is the New Blog and the former owners of Spin magazine and the website, are each said to be owed $1 million by the old company.

Spin Media was known as Buzz Media until it acquired Spin magazine and website two years ago and changed the name of the entire company.

Short consumer-engagement time on many of the 40 sites in the Spin network was always a problem, suggesting viewers were popping into many of the sites briefly, spending less than 90 seconds before exiting.

The network includes sites such as Celebuzz, The Superficial, Buzznet and Go Fug Yourself. The company had two major downsizings of staff in 2013, and as the editorial staffs were slashed, traffic began to erode as well. By November, it had fallen to around 26 million unique visitors on all platforms, down from 34 million in March.

Strang said the company currently has about 165 employees. He said the sale of the assets to the new firm did not involve any new layoffs, but added, “We’re constantly trying to be at the right size.”

Morrissy, who had most recently been executive vice president and chief revenue officer at Selectable Media and earlier worked at Synaptic Digital, said the new funding will allow the company to pursue more digital and app traffic than it could with the old company.